Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards

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Saddam Hussein as the Ace of Spades.

In the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition, the U.S. military developed a set of playing cards to help troops identify the most-wanted members of President Saddam Hussein's government, mostly high-ranking Baath Party members or members of the Revolutionary Command Council. The cards were officially named the "personality identification playing cards".

1 About the cards
2 See also
3 Sources

[edit] About the cards

Each card contains the wanted person's name, a picture if available, and the job performed by that individual. The highest-ranking cards, starting with the aces and kings, were used for the people at the top of the most-wanted list. The ace of spades is Saddam Hussein, the aces of clubs and hearts are his sons Qusay and Uday respectively, and the ace of diamonds is Saddam's presidential secretary Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti. This strict correspondence to the order of the most-wanted list was not carried through the entire deck, but some time later in 2003, the list itself was renumbered to conform (almost) to the deck of cards.

Such playing cards have been used as far back as the Civil War, Brooks said, again in World War II — Army Air Corps decks printed with the silhouettes of German and Japanese fighter aircraft fetch hundreds of dollars today — and in the Korean War. Troops often play cards to pass the time, and seeing the names, faces and titles of the wanted Iraqis during their games will help soldiers and Marines in case they run into the wanted individuals in the field, Brooks said. [1]

The deck of cards was first announced publicly in Iraq on April 11th 2003, in a press conference by Army Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, deputy director of operations at U.S. Central Command. On that same evening Max Hodges, a Houston-based entrepreneur, found and downloaded a high-resolution artwork file for the deck from a Defense Department web server. Discovering the following day that the file had vanished from the military web server he became the first eBay seller to offer the artwork file, in PDF, which could be used to reproduce the deck. [2] He quickly contracted Gemaco Playing Card Company to print 1,000 decks for about $4,000 and started selling both the decks, in advance of receiving them from the printer, on eBay, Amazon.com and his own web site. When some of his early auctions for a $4 deck of cards quickly rose to over $120, [3] it didn't take long for other eBayers to jump on the bandwagon and print or order decks of their own to sell. In just a few days hundreds of sellers materialized and the price dropped to just a few dollars per deck.

Within hours of the press conference, a New York City based entrepreneur set-up BaghdadRummy.com [4] (a play on Secretary of Defense Don "Rummy" Rumsfeld's nickname and the card game Rummy), the first of what became dozens of websites operated by other entrepreneurs, to sell the cards to the public.

Texas-based Liberty Playing Card Co. received an order to manufacture the cards for the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait and by claiming to be "the authorized government contractor" quickly became another popular domestic supplier for the commercial market. The U.S. military inadvertently included in the jokers the trademarked Hoyle joker owned by The United States Playing Card Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Although The U.S. Playing Card company does not object to the government's use of the image, they do object to other companies using the trademarked image. Thus, in some sense, the U.S. military inadvertently granted The U.S. Playing Card Company exclusive rights to manufacture the authentic decks, if the trademarked images on the jokers are considered a requirement for being authentic.

The deck of cards spawned many imitations and parodies, such as decks featuring members of the Bush administration and the Republican Party [5], as well as prominent liberals and members of the Democratic Party [6]. Other decks were created to commemorate the subsequent Presidential Election, including the colorfully balanced Presidential Poker [7] deck which contains a suit for each political point-of-view (positive Republicans, negative Republicans, positive Democrats, negative Democrats) along with a unique poker variation that lampooned the issues contests in the 2004 race. There has been criticism of the Bush administration for being preocupied with Iraq and losing focus of Osama bin Laden and the most wanted al-Qaeda members; those of this view often cite as an example that the government hasn't made up a similar deck of cards for the top al-Qaeda members.

Complete decks are good examples of ephemera because they will have lost their original purpose and their novelty interest in a relatively short time and they will become original printed witnesses of some major historical events.

[edit] Spades

All 54 cards. Click image for a larger version.

Ace ♠: Saddam Hussein, president (#1 on most-wanted list).
King ♠: Ali Hassan al-Majid, presidential adviser/Revolutionary Command Council member better known as "Chemical Ali" (#5).
Queen ♠: Muhammad Hamza Zubaydi, retired RCC member (#9, but was originally #18).
Jack ♠: Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al-Sattar Muhammad, Iraqi armed forces chief of staff (#13, was #11).
Ten ♠: Hamid Raja Shalah, Air Force commander (#17, was #15).
Nine ♠: Rukan Razuki Abd al-Ghafar, head of tribal affairs office (#21, was #39).
Eight ♠: Tariq Aziz, deputy prime minister (#25, was #43).
Seven ♠: Mahmoud Diab al-Ahmed, minister of interior (#29, was #46).
Six ♠: Amer Rashid Muhammad, presidential adviser/former oil minister (#33, was #47).
Five ♠: Watban Ibrahim Hasan, presidential adviser (#37, was #51).
Four ♠: Muhammad Zimam Abd al-Razzaq, Baath Party regional command chairman (#41, was #23).
Three ♠: Sa'd Abdul-Majid al-Faisal, Baath Party Regional command chairman (#55, was #36).
Two ♠: Rashid Taan Kazim, Baath Party regional chairman (#49, was #30).

[edit] Clubs

Ace ♣: Qusay Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein (#2).
King ♣: Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, RCC vice chairman (#6).
Queen ♣: Kamal Mustafa Abdallah, secretary of the Republican Guard (#10, was #8).
Jack ♣: Sayf Al-Din Fulayyih Hasan Taha, Republican Guard chief of staff (#14, was #12).
Ten ♣: Latif Nusayyif Jasim, Baath Party military bureau deputy chairman (#18, was #37).
Nine ♣: Jamal Mustafa Abdallah, deputy head of tribal affairs (#22, was #40).
Eight ♣: Walid Hamid Tawfiq, governor of Basra (#26, was #44).
Seven ♣: Ayad Futayyih Khalifa, Quds forces chief of staff (#30, was #20).
Six ♣: Hossam Mohammed Amin, head of National Monitoring Directorate (#34, was #49).
Five ♣: Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, presidential adviser (#38, was #52).
Four ♣: Samir Abd al-Aziz, Baath Party regional command chairman (#42, was #24).
Three ♣: Sayf al-Din, Baath Party regional command chairman (#46, was #27).
Two ♣: Ugla Abid Saqr, Baath Party regional chairman (#50, was #31).

[edit] Hearts

Ace ♥: Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein (#3).
King ♥: Hami Abd al-Latif Tilfah, special security organization (#7).
Queen ♥: Barzan Abd al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid, Special Republican Guard commander (#11, was #9).
Jack ♥: Rafi Abd al-Latif Tilfah, director of general security (#15, was #13).
Ten ♥: Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish, deputy prime minister (#19, was #16).
Nine ♥: Mizban Khadr Hadi, RCC member (#23, was #41).
Eight ♥: Sultan Hashim Ahmed, minister of defense (#27, was #19).
Seven ♥: Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar, director of military intelligence (#31, was #21).
Six ♥: Muhammad Mahdi (#35, was #48).
Five ♥: Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, weapons of mass destruction scientist (known as "Mrs. Anthrax;" #39, was #53).
Four ♥: Humman Abd al-Khaliq Abd, minister of higher education and scientific research (#43, was #54).
Three ♥: Fadil Mahmud Gharib, Baath Party regional command chairman (#47, was #28).
Two ♥: Ghazi Hammud, Baath Party regional command chairman (#51, was #32).

[edit] Diamonds

Ace ♦: Abid Hamid Mahmud, presidential secretary (#4).
King ♦: Aziz Salih, Baath Party regional command chairman (#8, was #17).
Queen ♦: Muzahim S'ab Hasan, air defense forces commander (#12, was #10).
Jack ♦: Tahir Jalil Habbush, intelligence service (#16, was #14).
Ten ♦: Taha Yassin Ramadan, vice president/RCC member (#20, was #38).
Nine ♦: Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf, vice president/RCC member (#24, was #42).
Eight ♦: Himat Mizaban Ibrahim, deputy prime minister and finance minister (#28, was #45).
Seven ♦: Amir Hamudi Hasan al-Sadi, presidential scientific adviser (#32, was #55).
Six ♦: Sabawi Ibrahim Hasan, presidential adviser (#36, was #50).
Five ♦: Abd al-Baqi Abd al-Karim Abdallah, Baath Party regional command chairman (#40, was #22).
Four ♦: Yahya Abdallah, Baath Party regional command chairman (#44, was #25).
Three ♦: Mushin Khadr, Baath Party regional command chairman (#48, was #29).
Two ♦: Adil Abdallah Mahdi, Baath Party regional command chairman (#52, was #33).

[edit] Other

There are also two jokers: one lists Arab titles, the other Iraqi military ranks. There are no cards for most-wanted #45 (was #26), Nayif Shindakh Thamir, #53 (was #34) Husayn al-Awadi, or #54 (was #35) Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad.

The 13 June 2003 edition of the BBC One show Have I Got News For You featured a set of the playing cards in one round: spoofing guest host Bruce Forsyth's 1980s game show Play Your Cards Right, the two teams played a version of the game show's main game, retitled Play Your Iraqi Cards Right (although during the segment it was revealed that the writers' original name for the game was Play Your Kurds Right), with the same rules (and audience participation). Much of the humour of the round came from the reactions of the two team captains to the game - while Paul Merton was clearly familiar with the game and greatly enjoyed it, opposing team captain Ian Hislop admitted he'd never seen Play Your Cards Right and appeared mystified by the game's rules and etiquette.